2021 in numbers
My year on adactio.com in numbers and sparklines.
Journal archive: 2021
99
Books I read in 2021
A mixture of fiction and non-fiction, each given a rating and a little review.
Even more writing on web.dev
Five more articles on modern responsive design to close out the course.
More writing on web.dev
Another five articles on modern responsive web design.
Getting back
Watching The Beatles.
Faulty logic
CSS logical properties here, they just aren’t evenly distributed yet.
Priority of design inputs
Can my favourite design principle be applied to the process of design?
Tracking
It’s time to have the conversation. You’re old enough to know where stats come from.
4 + 3
A four-day work week and a three-day weekend.
Inertia
Two JavaScript frameworks—Svelte and Astro—share a philosophy, but take subtly different approaches.
Ten episodes of the Web History podcast
From the birth of the web to the browser wars.
Memories of Ajax
A Netflix series today reminds me of something from 15 years ago.
Writing on web.dev
A new free course on responsive web design.
Publishing The State Of The Web
There’s a video and a transcript of the talk.
Four days
A balancing act.
BBC feedback
Trans women are women.
Season three of the Clearleft podcast
Six more episodes for your listening pleasure.
Design principles on the Clearleft podcast
The final episode of this season is mostly a case study.
Changing Situation
We’re all making risk assessments.
Measuring design on the Clearleft podcast
A deep dive into the McNamara fallacy.
Twenty years of writing on my website
This online journal is two decades old.
Innovation on the Clearleft podcast
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Halfway through season three of the Clearleft podcast
Three episodes down and three to go.
Design research on the Clearleft podcast
It’s like a murder mystery. But not sponsored by Mailkimp.
Writing the Clearleft newsletter
Want to see how the newsletter sausage is made?
Design engineering on the Clearleft podcast
If you like the sound of being a design engineer, come and join us at Clearleft.
Accessibility testing
It’s not just about finding the issues—it’s about finding the issues at the right time.
Stakeholders of styling
Are you writing instructions in CSS …or are you writing suggestions?
Accent all areas
A small but important addition to CSS.
Coaching on the Clearleft podcast
It’s a bit salesy but it’s also a really good discussion.
Season three of the Clearleft podcast
Rev your podcasting engines!
Airport time
A travel story.
Travel
On the move again.
SafarIE
Comparing browsers.
Upgrade paths
If you’re going to deprecate a feature on the web, at least give us an alternative.
Resigning from the AMP advisory committee
I gave it my best shot, but I gotta get out.
Browsers
Something about a browser that grinds your gears? Share it!
Foundations
This is for everyone.
Updating Safari
You can find the roadmap for new features and bug fixes on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of The Leopard.’
A Few Notes on A Few Notes on The Culture
Making a copy of a web page which is a copy of a newsgroup post by Iain M Banks. 1994::2001::2021
Facebook Container for Firefox
The browser extension is running amok.
Reader
How RSS feels.
Hope
Hyperlinks are the things with feathers.
Solarpunk
Put a tree on it.
Hosting online events
How I prepared for UX Fest.
Safari 15
What’s coming in the next version of Safari …and what isn’t.
ReCoil
I’m all for web monetisation and micropayments …but without the stench of crypto, please.
An email to The Guardian
A complaint about normalising anti-trans sentiment
Notified
Doing what my phone tells me to.
Talking about sci-fi
I’ve published the transcript of my sci-fi talk.
Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons
Speak softly and carry a big Google stick.
The spirit of the staircase
Wishing, not for the first time, that I’d learn when to keep my mouth shut.
Deceptive dark patterns
A modest proposal for incrementally adjusting our terminology.
Weighing up UX
A focus on user experience is good …but if the cause be not good?
Two decades of thesession.org
I’ve been running an online community for two fifths of my life.
Broad Band
A brilliant book by Claire L. Evans.
Summertime in England
Won’t you meet me in the country?
Speaking about sci-fi
Please join me and Steph Troeth for our Stay Curious event on June 16th.
The cage
Responding to a very bad take on surveillance capitalism.
Hosting UX Fest
Online interviews with super smart speakers.
Work at Clearleft
We’re hiring a design engineer. You should apply.
More talk
Even when the Clearleft podcast is on a break, I’m still yappin’ away.
Get the FLoC out
Google Chrome is prioritising third parties over end users.
Numbers
“I am not a number, I am a free website!”
The State of the Web — the links
A collection of hyperlinks for a talk.
The state of UX
The death of a dream …or the dawning of a golden age?
Of the web
Baldur Bjarnason has written my mind.
Principles and the English language
Mashing up George Orwell with axioms of web architecture.
The principle of most availability
Reframing the principle of least power.
Season two of the Clearleft podcast
Another six episodes done and dusted.
Five decades
Mid-century moments.
Service worker weirdness in Chrome
Debugging an error message.
Good form
Science, the web, and user experience.
Remote work on the Clearleft podcast
Lola Oyelayo-Pearson, Emma Boulton, Holly Habstritt Gaal and others share their thoughts on working from home.
Done
The bittersweet feeling of finishing something you’ve been working on for quite a while.
When service workers met framesets
The browser equivalent of a Roman legion showing up in a space opera.
Diversity and inclusion on the Clearleft podcast
Farai Madzima, Margaret Lee, Elaine dela Cruz and Rifa Thorpe-Tracey tell their stories.
March
Out of the ordinary.
Content buddy
Moving words around.
Preparing an online conference talk
Less like preparing to give a speech and more like making a short film.
Prototyping on the Clearleft podcast
Tales of duct-taped solutions from Benjamin, Lorenzo, Trys, and Adekunle.
Fifty
That’s a lot of numbers.
Accessibility on the Clearleft podcast
Fifteen minutes of excellent audio from Laura, Cassie, and Léonie.
Ten down, one to go
Counting down to 02022-02-22.
Reading resonances
Sometimes books rhyme.
Design engineer
It’s snappier than front-of-the-front-end developer.
Employee experience design on the Clearleft podcast
Episode two of season two is a two-hander.
The moment after eclipse
Reading Brian Aldiss.
Associative trails
How I use my website.
Prediction
What I’m hoping for in 2021.
Design leadership on the Clearleft podcast
The first episode of season two is here.
Sanguine nation
Some bloody good ideas.
Authentication
Some ways of combining security and usability for two-factor authentication on the web.
In the zone
Lost in podcasting.
Letters of exclusion
Use your words.
Get safe
It should be safe to visit a web page.
My typical day
Welcome to the working week.
Speaking online
Publishing one talk and preparing the next.
2020
A look back at a strange year.